Let me say that his tutorials were absolutely instrumental in my getting up to speed quickly on MC. They are simple and thorough.

And yea, I know a lot of people have the idea that Avid is really particular about the hardware. That went away some time ago when they got out of providing the hardware. But in that regard, it's really no different than Apple with FCS. Apple just doesn't sell it as a bundle like Avid used to do.

I looked at the low end Avid-blessed, workstation which is a Dell T3400. The base on that is $600. So for $1200, you could trick it out with drives, 8GB of RAM, a hot graphics card, and be ready to roll. If my business depended on my having Avid support, I'd think that spending the couple hundred extra buying a Dell certified system versus building it myself would be nearly negligible.

But again, nothing wrong with Premiere either. Both fine editing systems.

I really appreciate you guys being as nice and helpful as you have been with this. The truth of the matter which all of you have been far too considerate to say out right is in some respects I have unreasonable expectations.

None of these programs are like the $89.00 video packages you pick up at the local Best Buy. They are far more powerful and are made for Professionals- not people who want to “mess around with them” on their ever changing home computer.

I have a program which does all the record keeping, charting, and accounting for my Professional Office. By comparison it makes these NLE packages look dirt cheap.

When I bought the software I built a computer to its required specifications and it works great.
And has continued to work great for over six years.

The difference between my home and office is the office computer has only one purpose-- to run that software package. It is not used for Internet access and is not upgraded with newer hardware or operating systems.

It is still the same exact Pentium 4 it was the day I built it. It doesn’t get Windows updates or anything else. It just sits there exactly as it was the day I installed it.

I know in many ways these NLE packages are meant to be used the same way. You build a machine to run the software and leave it alone as long as you want to use that version. You don’t use it as a Gaming, Internet Access, Writing the occasional letter to Aunt Helen, and a “Oh, by the way” let’s do some video editing and maybe put in a new motherboard tonight type of machine.

I want to move the same package to newer hardware which it was never designed to run on in the first place. That might be considered just a tad unreasonable to the casual observer.

You guys helped me more than you could know by forcing me to sit down and decide what I really want to do with whatever package I end up buying. The truth is what I really want is an “effects “ package that happens to have a timeline and export functions. That seems to fit the Adobe CS4 product more than anything else.

Beyond capturing old Humphrey Bogart movies on Turner Classics I also mentioned I like making Music Videos for my wife and I. After Effects seems to be the next step up from Liquid for that purpose.
I admit I am going to spend a fortune on “Total Training” videos but I am not simply wanting to throw together a few home movies of the baby chewing on the cats tail at the family reunion. What I want to do is a lot more sophisticated than that.

If you want to see what I really do with this software I am providing a YouTube link for the first Music Video I made with Liquid.
Now if you don’t like the movie Live and Let Die or the song Back Stabbers by the Ojays then just smile and walk on by. Telling me it stinks will probably hurt my sensitive “artist’ feelings and at least my wife was smart enough to tell me she thought it was fantastic the first time she saw it.
But what wife wouldn’t say that?


YouTube - live and let die


Thanks again guys.

I have a few other questions about Plug-ins but I figured I would put it in a new post than bury it in this one.

I'm really not sure why you can't continue on with Liquid. You have a dedicated machine and it's used more for a hobby than making money. I'm pissed off with Avid as well but I've seen NextGen and I think when/if it comes out it will be great.

Hang on a second. Am I reading this right. Did you say that you've seen NextGen?!!!
Any more information that you would care to share.
Please.
Go on.
:-)

I signed a consent form so I really can't discuss it. This was well over a year ago now and have heard nothing more. I imagine it will be on the cutting edge. I've been holding on waiting but I'm only a short time away from moving on. Liquid is still making me money and is still very usable but I want upgrade my system and I'm getting tired of waiting.

A knowledgeable commentator on the AVID LIQUID forum says Edius would be his choice, soundsl like they have imitated some features of AVID. Background rendering would be the first feature I would miss if it wasn't there, who doesn't have that? I also like how Avid constantly saves your work without having to do so manually.

I heard the same thing about Edius

Thanks Rob
I thinks this sums up my position too.